How to Teach Meditation

Meditation is exploding in popularity. Given its proven benefits for many, this is a good thing. But the challenge is there aren’t enough teachers to keep up with demand!

In this 2.5-hour workshop, I will lay out the basics of how to guide a simple meditation practice. We’ll look at how to language a practice to make it maximally accessible, how to talk about the benefits, the importance of honesty and teaching where you are at, some common practitioner challenges, and finally we’ll explore the key principles of responsibility and self-pacing. I’m super excited to share my passion for teaching and hope it will be a fun and informative workshop.

Now for the caveats. The teaching of meditation is a vocation like anything else. It takes years to gain proficiency, and it absolutely must be founded on the teacher’s own experience and personal practice. There are many excellent comprehensive programs out there now for professional meditation teacher training. The newly-launched International Mindfulness Teacher’s Association (not without its controversies) is one place to go to find these programs. I recommend a minimum of 200-hour certification.

My workshop does not presume to train professional teachers. Think of it more as a gateway drug to teaching. Its actual intention is to empower people to think about and care for the mental health of others. A basic understanding of meditation is something every human being should know, just like every human being should know the basics of a healthy diet and the value of exercise.

That is my fiercest believe, one I will defend with a flashing sword until my dying day. Which isn’t a very meditative thing to say, but who fucking cares. I’m not a very meditative meditation teacher, so: buyer beware!

Instructors

Jeff is a writer and a meditation instructor. His primary subject is the mind, whatever that is. He is the co-author, along with Dan Harris and Carlye Adler, of Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, as well as the author of The Head Trip, a travel guide to sleeping, dreaming and waking consciousness. He has won awards for … Continued